Young adult sports fiction encompasses more than simply sharing the details of game action and instead moves into the realm of dealing with larger social issues which many other sub-genres of young adult literature touch on. In this way the sports scenes are all that seperate this type of literature from any other work of young adult fiction. The complex issues these novels deal with and their popularity reveal that America is in love with sports and the average sports fan is far more complex than typical stereotypes might suggest. Sports are a likely topic for young readers as many of them are involved in organized sports or have been at some point in the recent past, allowing them to transport themselves into the world of the character and become fully immersed in all that it has to offer. Gone are the days of picking up a sports novel and being inundated with page after page of nothing but action from the game as authors take an approach to provide a larger lesson and to focus on important issues relevent to their readers. While the action of the game and the sport itself are still a large part of what makes up the characters and how they go about their life, it is no longer the only thing as characters are more complex and face real problems relevent to their station in life. The popularity of these novels can also be partly attributed to the box office success of sports movies which move beyond the game such as The Blind Side and The Fighter which garnered acclaim from critics and movie goers alike. Sports are big business and all things related to sport are popular among a specific crowd of young people and the authors of this sub-genre use this interest in sports as the buffer in order to get at important social issues in a way that seems accessible to the young adult reader.
Beyond the Game: Young Adult Sports Fiction
Young adult sports fiction encompasses more than simply sharing the details of game action and instead moves into the realm of dealing with larger social issues which many other sub-genres of young adult literature touch on. In this way the sports scenes are all that seperate this type of literature from any other work of young adult fiction. The complex issues these novels deal with and their popularity reveal that America is in love with sports and the average sports fan is far more complex than typical stereotypes might suggest. Sports are a likely topic for young readers as many of them are involved in organized sports or have been at some point in the recent past, allowing them to transport themselves into the world of the character and become fully immersed in all that it has to offer. Gone are the days of picking up a sports novel and being inundated with page after page of nothing but action from the game as authors take an approach to provide a larger lesson and to focus on important issues relevent to their readers. While the action of the game and the sport itself are still a large part of what makes up the characters and how they go about their life, it is no longer the only thing as characters are more complex and face real problems relevent to their station in life. The popularity of these novels can also be partly attributed to the box office success of sports movies which move beyond the game such as The Blind Side and The Fighter which garnered acclaim from critics and movie goers alike. Sports are big business and all things related to sport are popular among a specific crowd of young people and the authors of this sub-genre use this interest in sports as the buffer in order to get at important social issues in a way that seems accessible to the young adult reader.
Suggested Reading:
Game by Walter Dean Myers
Juice by Eric Walters
Why I Fight by J. Adams Oaks
Author Links:
Walter Dean Myers
Eric Walters
J. Adams Oaks